In optical communication there are systems requiring a parallel transmission of several high bit rate data channels based on single mode fibers. Especially for a free space transmission within such a system a precise collimation of the parallel channels is necessary to guarantee a low loss system. For this purpose compact two dimensional fiber collimator arrays can be used. A main quality characteristic for these arrays is the pointing accuracy, the angular deviation of the collimated beams to a theoretical optical axis. The angular deviation is caused by a lateral offset of the fiber axes to the axes of the corresponding micro lens. To minimize this offset we developed and analyzed an actor geometry for a fiber array which allows a laser based micro alignment of the fibers to the micro lenses. An alignment accuracy within sub microns can be realized which guarantees a pointing accuracy below 0.01 degrees. In this paper we demonstrate some important results of the FEM based analyzes to show the influence of different laser parameters on the actor behavior. Experimental results confirm the results of the FE analyzes and demonstrate the applicability of laser based micro alignment of fibers for the assembly of highly precise two dimensional fiber collimator arrays.

We have been studying the refractive index changes and vacancies that are induced in transparent materials like glass by the irradiation of femtosecond laser pulses. This technique has been applied to fabricate three-dimensional photonic structures such as optical data storages, waveguides, gratings, and couplers inside a wide variety of transparent materials. We report micro-fabrication experiments of optical elements in glasses with femtosecond laser pulses, including fabrication of couplers, Bragg gratings, and zone plates and holograms on the surface of glass. A trial fabrication experiment on organic materials is also reported.Keywords: femtosecond, laser pulse, fabrication, three-dimensional, optical elements INTRODUCTIONMicromachining by femtosecond laser pulses in transparent materials has recently received much attention. When femtosecond laser pulses are focused inside the bulk of a transparent material, the intensity in the focal volume can become high enough to cause nonlinear absorption, which leads to localized modification in the focal volume, while leaving the surface unaffected. Recent demonstrations of three-dimensional micromachining of glass using femtosecond laser pulses include waveguides [1-9], couplers [10][11][12][13][14], gratings [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23], and three-dimensional binary data storage [24][25][26][27], lenses [28,29], and channels [30][31][32][33]. We present, in this paper, fabrication experiments of three-dimensional photonic devices. Contents of this paper are based on those presented in the International Symposium on Advances and Trends in Fiber Optics and Applications (ATFO 2004), October 11-15, 2004 , Chongqing University, Chongqing, China, and The 6th International Symposium on Laser Precision Microfabrication -SCI-ENCE AND APPLICATIONS -(LPM2005), April 4-8, Williamsburg, Virginia, USA. A 2-mm-long directional coupler to split the optical beam intensities into 1:1 at a wavelength of 632.8 nm is demonstrated [14]. We present in this paper the fabrication experiment of volume gratings induced in silica glass by filamentation of ultrashort laser pulses [17]. We stacked the layers with a period of several microns and fabricated volume gratings. To measure the diffraction efficiency we entered a He-Ne laser beam at the wavelength of 632.8 nm to the grating with the Bragg angle. The maximum diffraction efficiency was 74.8% with the grating that had the period of 3 µm, and the thickness of 150 µm. Fresnel zone plates by embedding voids in silica glass are demonstrated [28]. Holographic data storage on fused silica, soda-lime, and lead glasses with a single 130 fs laser pulse at a wavelength of 800 nm is presented [22]. After the sample is exposed to the interference fringe pattern of the object beam and the reference beam, a relief hologram is recorded through surface ablation. The recorded information can be reconstructed without destruction of the hologram when the power of the reference beam is reduced below the ablation threshold. Finally, we show

A study is presented on the influence of the clamping support distance on welding distortion of 6 mm thick gas metal arc welded structural steel T joints. Experiments were performed for two clamping conditions and are compared to simulations based on a previously presented model. It was found that clamping closer to the weld seam reduces angular as well as bending distortion. In order to assess the accuracy of the results, sensitivity analyses were performed on the influence of predeformation and material parameters. It is shown that an initial predeformation has an influence on the final welding distortion. Additionally, it has been found that selection of material properties within the range of variations permitted by the material norms has a strong influence on the predicted distortion. Results were improved using material specific data rather than generic data for the relevant material class. Also the assumed phase volume change plays an important role.

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